In MMO's i like to mix it up a little, use the tools which are not part of the norm, and STO is no different.

I love using melee, in fact recently, I was part of an all-melee squad on a ground STF elite(khitomer in stasis) and it was brilliant! the Borg never stood a chance, and we got the optional with time to spare. This happened, as with Melee, you dont have to worry about shields, and because melee weapons score more crits, and generally have a higher DPS (due to the lack of range). Oh, and no frequency modulations! yay!

I Decided though, that instead of players holding the weapons, I wanted to see how my NPC away team do. My current team consists of:

Me (Klingon) - Tac - Lobi Crystalline Sword

Orion Female - Sci - tsunkatse falchion

Orion Female - Eng - tsunkatse falchion

Orion Female - Tac - Shattering Crystalline Sword

Nausican Male - Tac - Naausican Tegolar Sword

Yeah, plenty of Orion ladies I know, but i assure you they are all wearing the full Bortasqu' Uniform, so they are completely covered!

I kept away from the Bat'leth and the Lirpa, as they tend to have a much slower hit rate. With this away team, I was amazed to see that we were taking enemies out pretty much as soon as we came across them. I have never seen effectiveness from a genre of weapons in STO. After seeing the effectiveness, I am not switching back to energy weapons ever again!

Forget energy weapons, try going total melee with your away team, and practise on the scorpions at Nimbus III. Once your confident, then head for the stronghold, and try attacking pirates You'll find they will fall so fast that they will all be dead before you get your third swing in!

Recently, I have seen a huge increase in players who are religious with Melee, and its made my STF missions a lot easier! I hope to see much more.

Does anyone else run an all-melee away team? What would you like to see improved? I would love to see the hit rate on the Lirpa and the Bat'leth increased. I can accept that to keep with balance, the DPS may have to drop slightly, but I would be happy with that.

I like to melee in Elite ground STF missions. Usually the more melee fighters the better the team does. When your melee fighting your able to kill quicker because your attacks go past shields to do a lot of damage also you don't have to worry about being shot or any of your team being shot at by the drone your attacking increasing the survivability of the entire team. All you have to worry about is sometimes you get injected with Borg Assimilation nanites.

A Sci with a medic kit really rocks as a melee fighter. Swords as the best melee weapon.

I totally agree. All of my Tacs (I have 3 in total) all have lunges. I see my boffs do a lunge, take off 400-500 hp in one shot, and if their target is still alive after that, normally just one swipe from their weapon is enough to finish them off. i suppose this is why every encounter I get into with my away team is over in just a few seconds!

I also spent a respec token to adjust all my traits and skills to give an equal advantage to space and ground combat, especially with melee in mind. Many players make their captains skill top-heavy for space skills, but keeping them even is the best option methinks.

Just wish there was more of a selection of melee weapons!!!

I would like to add that If anyone needs players for STF's exclusively for melee, then find me ingame as I would be happy to join in!

In MMO's i like to mix it up a little, use the tools which are not part of the norm, and STO is no different.

I love using melee, in fact recently, I was part of an all-melee squad on a ground STF elite(khitomer in stasis) and it was brilliant! the Borg never stood a chance, and we got the optional with time to spare. This happened, as with Melee, you dont have to worry about shields, and because melee weapons score more crits, and generally have a higher DPS (due to the lack of range). Oh, and no frequency modulations! yay!

I Decided though, that instead of players holding the weapons, I wanted to see how my NPC away team do. My current team consists of:

Me (Klingon) - Tac - Lobi Crystalline Sword

Orion Female - Sci - tsunkatse falchion

Orion Female - Eng - tsunkatse falchion

Orion Female - Tac - Shattering Crystalline Sword

Nausican Male - Tac - Naausican Tegolar Sword

Yeah, plenty of Orion ladies I know, but i assure you they are all wearing the full Bortasqu' Uniform, so they are completely covered!

I kept away from the Bat'leth and the Lirpa, as they tend to have a much slower hit rate. With this away team, I was amazed to see that we were taking enemies out pretty much as soon as we came across them. I have never seen effectiveness from a genre of weapons in STO. After seeing the effectiveness, I am not switching back to energy weapons ever again!

Forget energy weapons, try going total melee with your away team, and practise on the scorpions at Nimbus III. Once your confident, then head for the stronghold, and try attacking pirates You'll find they will fall so fast that they will all be dead before you get your third swing in!

Recently, I have seen a huge increase in players who are religious with Melee, and its made my STF missions a lot easier! I hope to see much more.

Does anyone else run an all-melee away team? What would you like to see improved? I would love to see the hit rate on the Lirpa and the Bat'leth increased. I can accept that to keep with balance, the DPS may have to drop slightly, but I would be happy with that.

Using Melee weapons in ground battle is great! I usually only give my warriors (tactical) officers, those weapons and my own character, so that half the team is attacking up close , while the other half is doing it at a safe distance. So if the melee attackers lose, at least the ones firing weapons will be standing still to hopefully finish the battle.

When you give the away team ranged weapons, I find their rate of fire is never up to speed. Give the away team melee weapons, and they go absolutely nuts!

Even if your dealing with a Borg boss, or the elite drones, get everyone surrounding them all with melee. The elites and bosses hardly get any hits in, because they constantly change targets and never get any hits in. Its nice to see that you can indeed run rings around the ground STF's so long as the players leave their pew-pews at home

Oh and Branflakes, Will we ever see the Nanopulse weapons making a return, like the Bat'leth and Lirpa? I wouldn't like to wait till christmas to get a chance of getting them! Can they be put in the lobi store?

Quote:

Originally Posted by thestargaze

Ohhh, I would love to try that. I love ground STF.

Try it, I promise it will make you smile with glee when you see your away team knocking seven bells of 'stuffing' out of anyone that comes close to them.

I'm also going to try today to have my away team completely unarmed. i'll test them with the scorpions on Nimbus III, then i'll put them against the pirates in the area, see how they fare.

EDIT: I have to add this as well. I have noticed that with ranged weapons, the away team don't use their skills as often as they should be doing, with melee, they use them much more. I wonder if this is something other people have spotted with an all-melee away team, or if its something not yet noticed by others...

I tried to be a melee on a non STF once, with my sci. Tried it with the +X% melee damage skill, can't remember the name.
I spent most of my time chasing running foes. It seems ranged mobs start running everytime someone gets to melee range, except for borgs. Considering I was a sci, lunge was not an option. I'm not even sure I made 2 hits in a row.